The present invention relates generally to a disposable absorbent garment, such as a diaper or training pant, and more specifically to an improved garment design and method for producing the same, which provides a waste containment region.
The manufacture of disposable absorbent garments, such as infant diapers or training pants, and adult incontinence briefs, is well-known in the art. Traditionally, disposable diapers and other such products are constructed with a moisture-impervious outer or backing layer, a body-contacting inner layer, and a moisture-absorbent core layer sandwiched and encased between the inner and outer layers. More recently, elasticized waistbands, elasticized leg openings, and elasticized waist openings have been developed to provide a better fit and enhance the containment of bodily exudates.
A drawback of conventional prior absorbent garments is urine leakage from sides of the garment, and poor isolation or containment of fecal material. In some instances, prior absorbent garments have provided openings through the inner body-contacting layer of the garment through which exudates may pass in the crotch region of the garment, but for various reasons these have been constructed in such a manner that they either provide improper and inefficient contact with the wearer's body, or present other regions through which exudates may leak from the garment. Such prior article designs often have had poor fecal material containment or acceptance, such that fecal material may spread over the article and not be sufficiently isolated from the wearer.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved disposable absorbent garment design, suitable for use by wearers, which can be manufactured efficiently and which is not susceptible to the above and other limitations and disadvantages.
Some of the objections to and disadvantages of the prior art as known is that some provide openings in a liner sheet, but provide elastics located only along opposing sides of the opening. Consequently, areas of the liner sheet at the ends of the openings tend to remain somewhat flat against underlying structure and do not lift up to readily capture exudates migrating toward the ends of the product. Others in the prior art have attempted to produce products in which an inner liner sheet is composed of a pair of opposed side sheet strips having wide and narrow sections, with the strips then being secured to the top of the garment with their narrow sections facing to provide an opening. These may be difficult to produce and align in a high-speed manufacturing operation, and if not properly secured together in regions outside the opening can provide additional leakage passages for exudates.